Silha Spring Ethics Forum: On Tuesday, April 24, 2007, the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law, in partnership with the Minnesota Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will present “Minimize Harm,” in recognition of National Ethics in Journalism Week. The presentation takes place at 7 p.m. in the Ski-U-Mah Room at the McNamara Alumni Center on the Minneapolis Campus of the University of Minnesota and features a panel of speakers, including Linda Walker, mother of the late Dru Sjodin, a representative from the Wetterling Foundation, and members of the media who worked on coverage of the Red Lake and Cold Spring school shootings. The forum is free of charge and open to the public. For more information, contact silha@umn.edu or call 612-625-3421.

Story and Psyche, the third and final event in the series Who's Got the Story? Memoir as History: History as Memoir features readings by participating authors on Wednesday, April 25, 2007, 7:30 p.m. at the Weisman Art Museum, followed by a panel discussion, Thursday, April 26, 2007, at 7:30 p.m. at 140 Nolte Center. Participating writers are Andre Achman, author of Out of Egypt; Carols Eire, author of Waiting for Snow in Havana; and Alice Kaplan, author of French Lessons. The discussion is moderated by Sara Evans. These events are free and open to the public. For more information, go to  http://www.whosgotthestory.umn.edu.

The SJMC's annual Spring Celebration, honoring scholarship/fellowship recipients and graduating students, will be held on Wednesday, May 2 , at 5 p.m. at the McNamara Alumni Center. For more information, contact mnjrnctr@umn.edu.

The Minnesota Journalism Center and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis will co-host the annual Supply, Demand & Deadlines Workshop June 24-26, 2007. "Supply, Demand & Deadlines: A Workshop on Economics for Journalists," provides mid-level reporters, editors and producers from the business, economics, political and policy beats with insights into how to cover some of the most important but difficult economic and business issues facing our communities. The workshop will include extensive opportunities for journalists to work through sample stories, case studies, and critiques of journalistic work in these subject areas. For more information, contact mnjrnctr@umn.edu.

 

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Assistant professor Gary Schwitzer was described as “one of the country's leading authorities on what's right and wrong about health coverage in the media” in an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on April 9. It is available online at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/310680_condor09.html

Professor Jane Kirtley was quoted in a number of media sources recently. She was a guest on CHML radio ( Hamilton, Ontario) on the morning show hosted by Bill Kelly on April 10, 2007.  The topic was the suspension of radio host Don Imus following racist comments he made on his show referring to the Rutgers women's basketball team. Kirtley also appeared on Twin Cities Public Television's "Almanac," and on Don Shelby’s radio show on WCCO to discuss the St. Paul Pioneer Press lawsuit against Par Ridder. She was also quoted on Minnesota Public Radio, in The City Pages and the St. Paul Pioneer Press with comments on the same topic. Kirtley was also quoted in the New York Sun on the topic of press freedom.


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Chris Ison was recognized as one of the College of Liberal Arts'  "Alumni of Notable Achievement" at a dinner at the Weisman Art Museum in March. The program honors CLA graduates who have distinguished themselves in their careers and in service to their communities.

 

Professor Ken Doyle has joined the editorial board of the Journal of Communication.

Libby Issendorf, an honors student in the SJMC, is one of 14 CLA students selected to receive a Selmer Birkelo scholarship of $4,000 for 2007-2008.  Only one student from a school or department may be chosen for this honor. 

Two SJMC students picked up three Eric Sevareid Awards at the Northwest Broadcast News Association (NBNA) last month. Jennifer Hoff (B.A., 06) won first place in the Hard News Feature category for “Silvera’s Widow,” a story that interviewed the widow of a Lino Lakes police officer one year after he was shot detailing the real impact of his death. Hoff also won an Award of Merit in General Reporting for “Nate’s Story,” about a Boy Scout with autism who was able to earn his Eagle Scout Award. She is now working at KTTC-TV in Rochester as a reporter/anchor. Erich Schaffhauser, who will graduate in May, won first place in General Reporting for “Poo Power,” a story about a dairy farmer who converts cow manure into electricity. The NBNA covers a six state region including Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

Professor Ron Faber was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Advertising.  This is the highest recognition in this organization. Faber also received a 2007 Best Review Award from the Journal of Advertising.

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Assistant Professor Michael Stamm presented a paper, "Creating the Multimedia Monopoly: Newspaper-Radio Joint Ownership in 1930s America," at the annual Joint Meeting of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations in Boston, April 5, 2007.

Professor Hazel Dicken-Garcia presented a paper, "'Nonsense of Greeley and Vallandigham Equally Protected: Tolerance of Civil War Journalists for Freedom of Expression," co-authored with Dr. Giovana Dell'Orto (SJMC alum), at the annual Joint Meeting of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations in Boston, April 4, 2007.

 

 

Professor Jisu Huh attended the American Academy of Advertising Conference in Burlington, Vermont, in mid April and presented three papers, including, “Operationalizing the Second-Person Effect and its Relationship to Behavior Outcomes of DTC Advertising,” which she wrote with Denise DeLorme and Leonard N. Reid; “The Impact of Offline Advertising on Initial Trust Formation of Dot-Com Websites,” written by Huh and Chunsik Lee; and “Culture and its Influence on Advertising: A Critical Assessment of Comparative Advertising Research, 1975-2005,” written by Huh, Tsan-Kuo Chang, Kristi McKinney, Sela Sar, Wei Wei and Adina Schneeweis.

Professor Jisu Huh’s paper, “Others are Influenced, But Not Me: Older Adults’ Perceptions of DTC Prescription Drug Advertising Effects,” which she co-authored with Denise DeLorme and Leonard N. Reid, has been published by the Journal of Aging Studies.

Assistant professor Gary Schwitzer spoke to the 27th annual American Medical Association Medical Communications Conference in Tampa, FL, on April 13.  His talk was entitled: “Grading Health News: Data and Trends from One Year.”  

Chris Ison's article, "Falling Star: Valuable Lessons Abound when Investigating College Athletics," was published in the March/April edition of The IRE Journal, the magazine published by Investigative Reporters and Editors. The article examined the investigative reporting techniques used in a series of stories in the Star Tribune on the University of Minnesota's recruitment of academically fragile athletes. It also revealed inconsistencies in how Big Ten schools comply with their states' open records laws.

Professor Dona Schwartz was a member of a panel exploring the lives and careers of contemporary women and working artists earlier this month. The panel was presented by the Minnesota Center for Photography, the Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Northern Clay Center and the Textile Center of Minnesota.

The work of Professor Dona Schwartz is included in several exhibits, including Profile in access+ENGAGE, an electronic journal published by mnartists.org; “Regarding Intimacy” at Hunter College in New York; and Photocentric 2007, a juried exhibition of work by the Minnesota Center for Photography which demonstrates the range and vitality of contemporary photographic art within our region and introduces new artists to the MCP’s viewing audiences. Photocentric 2007 is on display at the MCP through May 27.

Professor Jane Kirtley made a number of appearances last month, including a lecture, "How free is the freedom of the press?" for the University of Minnesota College of Continuing Education Headliners series at the Continuing Education and Conference Center on the St. Paul campus; and spoke on media law and ethics in the United States to 12 visiting journalists from east Asia who were participants in the State Department’s Edward R. Murrow Program.

The students of JOUR 3745H presented their collaborative project with Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR.org) at the University's Public Engagement Day on April 11. Students in the Honors section of Mass Media and Popular Culture promoted local bands and recruited volunteers for the FMR at concert venues.

Ph.D. student Rebecca Bolin Swenson presented a paper, "Keeping up with the Joneses: Constructing Identity Through Perpetual Transformation," at the annual Joint Meeting of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations in Boston, April 6, 2007.

Ph.D. student Jennifer Moore presented a paper, "Thomas Nast's Political-Cartoon 'Crusade' Against Editor Horace Greeley," co-authored with UM Professor Hazel Dicken-Garcia and St. Cloud State University Professor William Huntzicker, at the annual Joint Meeting of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations in Boston, April 4, 2007.

An article titled "Spent Resources: Self-Regulatory Resource Availability Affects Impulse Buying" co-authored by SJMC Professor Ron Faber and Kathleen Vohs was published in the March issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.  This article provides an explanation for when and why people may engage in impulse buying.  An interview with Ron about this work was aired on National Public Radio's Marketplace Money program.  Newspaper and magazine articles about this research also appeared in a wide range of publications including the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Toronto Globe and Mail and Forbes.

Professor Ron Faber and SJMC students Jun Myers, Brittany Duff and Yulia Lutchyn presented a paper titled "The Influences of Consumer Processing Style and Headline Execution on Responses to Visual Metaphor Advertisements," at the American Academy of Advertising conference in Burlington, Vermont.

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SJMC welcomes East Asian guests
Twelve East Asian journalists were guests in Murphy Hall April 12-17 as part of the U.S. State Department's Edward R. Murrow program for international journalists.

The journalists came from China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Taiwan and traveled to Minnesota as part of their stay in the United States. While here, the foreign journalists participated in a five-day workshop on journalism practices in the United States with presentations by SJMC professors Kathy Hansen, Nora Paul, and Jane Kirtley, as well as Paul McEnroe, Star Tribune investigative reporter, and Glenn Howatt, Star Tribune computer-assisted reporting editor. The East Asian guests also toured General Mills and the St. Paul Pioneer Press during their stay in the Twin Cities.

The Murrow program brings journalists from around the world to the United States for an introduction to the standards and practices of American journalists. The SJMC was one of seven schools of journalism to be selected last year to participate in the program's first year, and was invited to again host a group of visiting journalists this year.

 

Paul McEnroe, Star Tribune investigative
reporter, spoke to Murrow Participants.


30th Annual Premack Awards celebrate public affairs journalism

The Minnesota Journalism Center and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication sponsored the 30th Annual Frank Premack Awards on April 23, 2007, to honor public affairs journalists and discuss the importance of public affairs journalism in Minnesota.

The award honors the late Frank Premack who was known for his aggressive pursuit of the news. Dishonesty, sham and pretense were his target wherever his reporting led him. Curious and cantankerous, he demanded to know why things were as they were. He was fascinated by politics and government, and excelled in reporting in this area, earning the respect of those he covered, the reading public and his colleagues. During his career, he was city editor and assistant managing editor of the Minneapolis Tribune. In 1975, Premack died of a heart attack while a member of the Tribune’s Special Reporting Group. He was 42.

The award presentation featured discussion led by panelists R.T. Rybak, Minneapolis mayor; Karen Boros, professor of journalism and mass communication, University of St. Thomas; Bill Hanna, editor, Mesabi Daily News; and D.J. Leary, co-founder and editor, Politics in Minnesota; and winners of the 2006 Premack Award. Lori Sturdevant, editorial writer and columnist for the Star Tribune, moderated the symposium. (For a list of the winners, click here.)

The SJMC and the Minnesota Newspaper Association partnered to present “Newspaper Next” last month. This one-day, regional workshop discussed a new approach to transforming the newspaper business firsthand. More than 110 publishers, editors and reporters from newspapers all over the state took advantage of the opportunity. Built on the concepts of renowned Harvard innovation expert Dr. Clayton Christensen, Newspaper Next is designed for newspaper people and the unique needs and circumstances of newspaper organizations.

Immigration coverage was the focus of a recent Diversity Forum, presented by the SJMC in partnership with the Department of Chicano Studies. “Immigration Coverage: Here we go Again” was led by Professor Mercedes de Uriarte of the University of Texas. She is a member of the School of Communication at the University of Texas where she teaches interdisciplinary courses in American Studies, Latin American Studies, Women and Gender Studies and Journalism. She is the author of "Diversity Disconnects: From Classroom to Newsroom," the first assessment of the quarter-century attempt to integrate and diversify the U.S. press. She is a prolific writer and contributes to both mass media and academic publications. This event is part of a series of Diversity Forums sponsored by the School of Journalism & Mass Communication.

Professor Kathleen Hansen welcomed a number of guest speakers to her classes last month, including Brent Stahl, Vice President for MORI Research; robin Marty, blogger and writer for Minnesota Monitor and powerliberal.com; Annamarie Saarinen, public affairs specialist for ASI Communications; and Matt Thompason, editor of vita.mn, a Star Tribune social networking site.

Professor Jisu Huh welcomed Paul Sanders, interactive production manager at Fallon to her Interactive Advertising class (JOUR4272) on April 9, 2007. Sanders shared his views and campaign cases regarding Web 2.0 and user-generated content.

Professor Donald Brazeal welcomed a number of guest speakers to his classes this month, including John Dusek, co-founder of an information architecture consulting firm called Straightline Communications, who spoke to the On-line Media class. With clients such as Target, General Mills and Fingerhut, Dusek discussed improvements of Web site designs by focusing on usability and effective site navigation. Nancy Cassutt, vice president of content for Internet Broadcasting, spoke to the On-line Media class about management of information Web sites.

Lecturer Dan Bernard welcomed Pat Kessler, political reporter for WCCO Channel 4 to his class earlier this month. Kessler spoke to students about his work.

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March 2007